Commanding Rainbows To Stay

 By Maryanna Gabriel 

"You will be surely amazed, when once you
begin to feel what colour means. To find how many
qualities which appear to result from peculiar method
and material do indeed only depend on loveliness of execution;
how divine the law of nature is which is so connected to the 

immortality of beauty with patience of industry, that by precision
of rightness of laborious art, you may at last literally
command the rainbow to stay, and forbid the sun to set."
- John Ruskin Laws of Friesole

I have to admit packing up my studio is hard. I wish I had painted more. Played more with colour. Been braver. As it is, I think of Frida Kahlo while my back acts up. It is a year after my fall and I am frustrated not to be further along with my healing. Frida was bold. She took her struggles and pinned it to the canvas with a series of nails alternated with flowers, monkeys, eyebrows, and Diego. I have already spilled brushes and pencils as if avoiding the box that is their destination. We always think there is more time. And then there isn't. I keep promising myself new and interesting places to create beauty await. I just wish I could teleport a part of the studio and this amazing property so I too could command rainbows.